Today, portable data storage devices are capable of storing large amounts of data. Portable data storage devices, however, can be a major security concern because they can be attached to numerous hosts or subjected to attack. Accordingly, many organizations now require portable storage devices to have one or more security features.
For example, the Advanced Technology Attachment (“ATA”) specification provides a mechanism for setting a password on a storage device. An ATA password, also known as the ATA Security Feature Set, is part of the ATA specification. By setting an ATA password, the drive limits access to its data and accepts only a limited number of commands. A host cannot read or write to the storage device until it is authenticated. In addition, the drive may employ encryption, such as full disk encryption, to prevent access to the data without a password.
Typically, when booting or accessing a protected drive, the user at a host must execute a third party management application to enter the appropriate password and manage the storage device encryption. Unfortunately, this approach requires the installation and use of a separate application to access the storage device. The storage device is thus limited to only those hosts having this third party application installed.
Without the software application, the host is unable to authenticate with the drive and a functional deadlock results because there is no way for the host to send commands to the drive to unlock the user area. For example, if the user connects the drive to a new or different host, then this host cannot authenticate with the drive because it lacks the third party software.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a secure, portable storage device that is self sufficient.